Tiger Woods tees off on the first hole during the third round of the BMW Championship. / Reid Compton, USA TODAY Sports

by Steve DiMeglio, USA TODAY Sports

by Steve DiMeglio, USA TODAY Sports

LAKE FOREST, Ill. - The two-stroke penalty Tiger Woods was assessed to his obvious displeasure after his second round Friday could turn out to be an even bigger story on Sunday.

Setting aside his anger, Woods got himself back into the BMW Championship at sun-drenched Conway Farms Golf Club with a 5-under-par 66 Saturday to gain residence on the first page of the leaderboard. Woods, who made six birdies in seven holes around the turn, closed with a birdie from 12 feet on the final hole to pull within four shots of pace-setting Jim Furyk in the third leg of the FedExCup playoffs.

Woods was paired with Sergio Garcia for the first time since the two were in a public spat earlier this year at The Players Championship and Garcia said he "will serve him fried chicken" when asked at a European Tour dinner two weeks later if he would have Woods over for dinner during the U.S. Open. Garcia later apologized.

There were no dust-ups between the two. They shook hands on the first tee and said "Play well" to each other. Throughout the round both players acknowledged the other's good shots. But there was no other banter before they shook hands on the 18th green.

Woods started his round slowly but kicked his round in gear with a birdie from 31 feet on the sixth hole. He added two more birdies from short range on the next two holes, and after a par on the ninth, made three birdies in a row after making the turn. But he was angry with himself for making a par on the par-5 14th and a bogey on the driveable par-4 15th when he hit his first tee shot into the water.

"I had a nice little run to at least get myself in there where I have a chance (Sunday)," Woods said. "I fought back today, which was not easy to do. Today was a tough round, but I fought and got myself back within striking distance."

Still, the world No. 1 could be at 11 under had he not been assessed a two-shot penalty in the scoring trailer at the end of his second round on Friday. Woods had hit his second shot on the par-4 opening hole Friday over the green into trees rimming the hole. While Woods was removing debris around his ball behind the first green, the ball moved. A PGA Tour Entertainment crew was filming the incident and sent the video to PGA Tour headquarters. From there, tournament officials were notified and learned about the infraction while Woods was playing the fourth hole but did not say anything to Woods until the round was over.

Woods was none too pleased and had a heated discussion with rules officials when told of the infraction. Woods still insisted the ball just oscillated and did not move even after seeing the video evidence "again and again and again."

He was still simmering 24 hours later.

"It's hard," Woods said about putting the incident behind him. "You know, there were a lot of thoughts going on last night, but the sun comes up in the east, and we start a new day."

But the ruling was still on his mind.

"It's one of those things where I thought the ball oscillated, and I thought that was it. I played the shot, played the round, and then (rules officials) Slugger (White) and Tyler (Dennis) in there, they replayed it and gave me two," Woods said. " â?¦ I was pretty hot because I felt like, as I said, nothing happened. I felt like the ball oscillated and that was it. I played the rest of the round grinding my tail off to get myself back in the tournament and then go from 5 to 7 behind, that was tough. After seeing the video I thought the ball just oscillated, and I thought that was it. I thought that was the end of story.